The Adventures Of Blah, Blah, Blah

Steve E. George

It’s Thursday night, blues night. I gotta say, it was my idea. I’m talking to the GM months ago, I say, why don’t we do a blues night on Thursdays? Bring in a different crowd. We’ll do an homage to Blues On Grand. Call it…Blues on Walnut. He says, alright. Sounds good.

Now the GM’s like, that was my idea. To do a blues night. I’m like, yeah. Good one.

Steve E. George is playing tonight. Cool dude, I really like him. I actually met him a couple years ago, we worked on a training video together. It was about sexual harassment in the workplace. Guess who played the sexual harasser? Yep, me. Naturally.

I remember I asked my wife the night before the shoot if she’d run lines with me. We read it thru, and she’s like, yeah. You don’t even have to ACT.

Then couple years later, Steve comes in, come to find out, he’s a blues singer with a band. And I’m behind the bar.

He’s a character. Great voice, and he’s really comfortable on stage. He’s kinda cocky, in a funny way. I like him.

But what’s funny is, he thinks my name is Curtis.

Hey Curtis! What’s going on?

And he says it a lot. Maybe he’s one of those people likes to say people’s names. Maybe he read a book one time. Like how to make friends. You GOTTA say people’s names, they love that. Then they’ll want to be your FRIEND.

Anyway, he’s in the bar, and we’re talking, and he’s calling me Curtis. Ok, not THAT big of deal. It IS my last name. And sometimes people call people by their last name. But that’s not the case here. He’s calling me Curtis because he thinks that’s my first name. My first name is actually Clint. Last name Curtis.

I had a guy in high school made comment one time, hey, you got two first names!

His name was Doug Scott.

End of night, Steve E. George is at the bar, we’re talking, I say, you know what Steve? Is this going to be it with our relationship, or do you want to keep on going? He says, what do you mean? I say, you know, you come in, I’m the bartender, you’re the customer, we say our pleasantries, OR, do you want our relationship to grow, keep on going? He says, well, yeah, let’s do it. I say, well, then good. Then you gotta learn my name. My name is CLINT. NOT Curtis. He laughs, he’s embarrassed, BUT our friendship grows.

It’s midnight, everybody’s gone, Steve E. George is leaving, he’s holding a Hawaiian shirt on a hangar, and he’s wearing an ALMOST identical Hawaiian shirt. I say, hey Steve E. George. NICE costume change! A Hawaiian shirt for a Hawaiian shirt. He turns to his lovely wife, and says,

Do you see why this guy would be good in a sexual harassment training video?!?